A big part of the problem - if not the crux of the problem - is the matter that Joe Offer alludes to above, and which no one seems to want to talk about: "the most predominant religious belief in the United States is what he calls the Myth of Redemptive Violence - the belief that violence can accomplish good" ...

In other words, if the issue were simply the NUMBER of guns, there would be percentages of gun-deaths in Switzerland and Canada comparable to those of the United States. Michael Moore, whatever you may think of him, gets into this in "Bowling for Columbine".

Consider the extent to which the television and movie industries nurture and prepetuate a little-boy fantasy world in which heroes save the day with spectacular acts of violence. This in combination with the prevalence and social-acceptability of confrontational - or, as we've seen recently, downright abusive - public rhetoric, often with an underlying implied threat of violence, and the ready access to guns, may partly explain the problem.

Just some thoughts I'm throwing out there ...